Elected officials law enforcement, educators discuss safety in schools

Friday

Jan 11, 2013 at 2:00 AM

GOSHEN — A roomful of school and law-enforcement leaders, elected officials and others assembled Thursday to discuss ways to improve school security and tap mental-health resources in the wake of last month's school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

BY CHRIS MCKENNA

GOSHEN — A roomful of school and law-enforcement leaders, elected officials and others assembled Thursday to discuss ways to improve school security and tap mental-health resources in the wake of last month's school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

About 80 people, including representatives of most of Orange County's school districts and police agencies, met for two hours at the county Fire Training Center and left with no resolution other than to convene again with smaller groups in coming weeks. The meeting was closed to the public.

Afterward, state Sen. William Larkin, who held a more limited discussion with several school and county officials last month and helped preside over Thursday's follow-up gathering, said one goal of the sessions is to develop concrete proposals that could be crafted into bills in Albany.

"We're not looking for dream ideas," said Larkin, R-Cornwall-on-Hudson. "We have a responsibility to protect these children in an environment where they'll learn. We have an issue here that is critical. We don't need a repeat of Sandy Hook. We don't need a repeat of Columbine. We don't need a repeat of Aurora."

District Attorney Frank Phillips said participants spoke about the difficulty of paying for increased security in schools. "Everybody understood that, unlike the federal government, we don't get to print money," he said.

No firm proposals emerged, although Undersheriff Ken Jones floated the idea of forming a county-run corps of retired cops whom districts could hire as armed security officers for their buildings.

He argued that each would likely cost the schools less than $30,000 a year — much less than they pay to have a full-time cop.

"This can be solved, and it doesn't have to cost millions of dollars," Jones said.

A memo from Sheriff Carl DuBois, distributed to superintendents at the meeting, argues that a countywide program of that nature would provide consistent training and standards and offer districts "an economical alternative to having uniform police presence." It also would bypass jurisdictional problems in school districts served by multiple police agencies, DuBois said.